Yes, you can lift weights in residential drug treatment, but moderation is the key here. Having access to a gym during recovery has been shown to have some amazing benefits. Exercising is a great way to relieve stress and frustrations and helps you on the road to getting physically healthy after a drug or alcohol addiction. It’s important to start slow so your body can adjust to doing physical activity again. Once your body starts adjusting, you can slowly increase the activity, but don’t overdo it.
Benefits of Lifting Weights in Recovery
Recovery from substance abuse disorders is not easy to get through. When you are struggling in your recovery, lifting weights can help you maintain control. Here are some benefits of lifting weights in recovery:
- Weight training allows your body to start to heal by rebuilding your muscles slowly
- Weight training helps the body purge drugs and alcohol
- Weight training gives you something to focus on when you are trying to work through a difficult point in your recovery
- Weight training or working out on a machine helps to relieve stress, anger, and frustration
Lifting weights while working through recovery is very beneficial to your mind and body. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse states that:
Exercise is advocated as an intrinsically rewarding, engaging, healthy, and safe alternative behavior. Exercise’s broad positive health, mood-enhancing, and anxiolytic effects; capacity to reduce the acute distress of withdrawal; and nearly universal safety profile when properly adapted for the individual make it an appealing adjunctive intervention to help attain abstinence and prevent relapse among individuals with substance use disorders. (NIH)
While weight lifting alone does not hold all the answers, it definitely helps men and women that want to stay sober and follow a healthy alternative to substance abuse.
Physical and Psychological Benefits of Exercise in Recovery
Exercising while in recovery improves the physical condition of clients as well as their emotional well-being. When someone is caught up in their addiction, they usually let their physical health deteriorate. Exercise is one way to get their bodies back into a healing state. Some of the other physical benefits of exercise in recovery include:
- Improved circulation
- More restful sleep
- Boosts energy
- Improved muscle strength
- Weight loss and management
- Helps acute withdrawal symptoms
Being in a state of addiction also causes one’s mental health to deteriorate. Exercise promotes mental and emotional improvements. It is a healthy way to release endorphins or dopamine which causes the body to feel pleasure. Exercise helps individuals to focus and regain their sense of self. Some of the other psychological benefits include:
- Improved mood
- Improved self-concept
- Reduces anxiety and depression
- Sharpens mental skills
- Provides a healthy hobby to occupy time
- Helps acute withdrawal symptoms
Working out is always good for improving and maintaining physical and psychological health while in recovery. Recreate Life Counseling provides time at the gym along with on-site fitness activities as part of their comprehensive addiction treatment. Their gym facilities feature a range of equipment for weight training and cardio along with the ability to participate in a variety of classes. Recreate Life Counseling has a team of trained professionals to help you exercise safely and effectively while on your journey to sobriety.
Treatment for Drug Addiction
If you or someone you love needs help with an addiction, our addiction specialists are available around the clock to speak to you. Call us today and recreate your life with our evidence-based addiction treatment!